Separate But Equal Elections Adopted by Democrats in Maryland

By Sharon L. Cohen, MCGOP Central Committee Member, Legislative District 15

As a female and a Republican – yes, shock and awe, there are women Republicans in Montgomery County – I cannot stop laughing at the recent decision by the Maryland Democrat Party to adopt separate but equal elections for their central committee members. Half of their central committee members must be female and the other half male, but that is not new. What is new is that during this year’s June 26 primary for 17 counties, each voter will HAVE to Vote for one or more MALES on the Male ballot and one or more FEMALES on the Female part of the ballot. A new separate but equal voting arrangement has arrived if you are a Democrat.

Didn’t the Supreme Court strike down “Separate but Equal” in 1954? Sorry to confuse, since that matter was related to race and education. Gender is obviously different and apparently the Maryland Democrat Party believes separate but equal -- at least with regard to voting for certain elected officials -- is a good thing.

Hmmm, what happens if you are a candidate but you are not sure if you are male or female, whoops maybe you don’t get on the ballot (just kidding, I have no idea how that will be handled). And then, can a male candidate identify as a female to qualify as to be on the female ballot? Nope, guys, you have to run as a male regardless of your orientation or identification, but who knows. And how will the Board of Elections handle a situation if a candidate claims to be one gender but obviously is NOT? OMG, let’s not go there. What’s the standard for proving the gender of a candidate?

The problem seems to be not enough Democrat women are running for office in Maryland. News flash: We do NOT have this problem on the Republican side. Republicans have lots of women running for our central committee, for the Maryland General Assembly and for the US Congress as well. The Democrat solution for their lack of skirts running for office is to “set aside” half of elected positions on the Democrat central committee for women and half for men. The voter is compelled to vote ONLY for women and men. At least one of each gender MUST be picked when there are two central committee members, or two of each if there are four central committee members from that district. If you have three central committee members, one of each, will “King Solomon” will have to cut someone in half to meet the gender equality requirement for the third seat?

According to the Democrat State Party Chair Kathleen Matthews, being elected to your state party’s central committee is a stepping-stone for more important and prestigious elections. The requirement to have no less than half men and half women elected is an effective glass ceiling. Women cannot therefore end up making up 55, 60 or even 75 percent of the central committee, so how is that good for furthering women in elected office? Why set a finite hard ceiling of no more than 50 percent?

Today, women make up over 56 percent of all students in college in the US, and more than half of students in law and medical school are now women. By limiting to NO MORE than 50 percent, the Democrat party has just created its own GLASS CEILING to party elected office. WOW.

Last time I checked, men and women get to run for whichever office they choose to in local, state or national elections. Can you imagine if the Democrats proposed that Jews could only run for the Jewish seat on their central committee, Asians were limited to ONLY the Asian seat? Does anyone see a flashing DISCRIMINATION neon sign here?

Ed Kimmel’s February 20, 2018 piece in the Seventh State on the matter, Sex Discrimination At MCDCC, is spot on, noting that “Pretending that there is something about ovaries or testicles that causes a person to make better/worse/different policy decisions is, itself, a slanderous statement.” Kimmel further states that “This is huge step backwards in the quest to end sex discrimination.” Seventh State

Sorry Democrats. It is back the future for your central committee. Maybe the Democrat central committee ballot sections should be printed pink for female candidates and blue for male candiates.   That way the separate but equal voting arrangement for their central committee members will be clear to Democrat voters.